tanka

looking fragile
the Limber Pine hangs on
in a niche
retired now
sending roots into new ground

​

(Ribbons, 2019, Fall 15:3, p55)

Greenland
walking on a glacier
history
     melting
     under my feet

​

(Ribbons, Tanka Cafe,2020, 16:1, p25)

chauvinisms
the old ways of thinking
sprouting
weeds in the garden
attacking Black-Eyed Susans

​

(Ribbons, Tanka Cafe, 2020, 16:3, p 39)

Twenty years married
so fast - as the cliché goes
blurred energies
love and respect – the fuels
then, now, and moving forward

​

(Ribbons, Tanka Cafe, Spring/Summer 2019, 15:2, p 38)

the shift
of the earth's polar rotation
a disturbance
my daughter's off to college
my frame of reference changes

​

(Ribbons, 2020, 16:3, p 57)

lingering dusk
one lone cicada singing
accompanied
by children laughing
playing tag in the street

​

(Ribbons, 2021, 17:2, p 51)

vernal equinox*
balance shifting to light
emerging
sprouts of love and kindness
hope for this small planet

​

(Ribbons, Tanka Cafe 2021, 17:2, p 38)

*Member's choice Tanka - Honorable mention in 17:3, p13

dusk fades to darkness
cicadas yield to crickets
backyard bluegrass
with the adagio
of distant ship horns

​

(Ribbons, 2021, 17:3, p 31)

singing adios
au revoir, auf wiedeersehen
my goodbye
honors your accomplishments
and my appreciation

​

(Ribbons, Tanka Studio: Goodbyes 2022, 18:1, p 32)

circumstances
washing over me
obliterate …
another story
I’ll be back

​

(Ribbons, Tanka Studio: Goodbyes 2022, 18:2, p 34)

clank, clink, clank
a rope hits the flagpole
the tattoo
calling them home
flag at half-mast

​

(Ribbons, 2022, 18:1, p 55)

childhood neighbors
English, Polish, Swedish, Hungarian
taken for granted
my church’s Sunday buffets
such cuisine in the basement

​

(Ribbons, Tanka Studio: Goodbyes 2022, 18:2, p 60)

bonsai
trained, pruned
and repotted regularly
that good job
in a big company

(Cattails, October 2019, p65)

humming
transformer on a pole
working
Eduardo – hums softly 
sends his earnings home

(Cattails, April 2020, p73)

cicadas
canticles for evensong 
I sit quietly
navigating thought traffic
in a crazy roundabout

​

(TSA Anthology 2020)